Ishtar Restaurant — Restaurant in Calgary

We celebrated my husband’s 50th birthday at Ishtar Restaurant on October 5th. It was a surprise bday, Bashar, the owner helped me plan it, he listened attentively to what i requested, we agreed on the menu and drinks beforehand. He went extra and took care of the decorations even. During the event, the food was more than amazing. Every detail was perfect. We are a picky bunch but everyone was super happy and enjoyed the variety of the extensive Mezze (appetizers, salads, humus, baba ghanouj, labne, muhammara, cheese sambousik, kebbe), the main was also delicious, mixed Mediterranean mashawi grill/ bbq (shish tawook, kafta, and kabob) meat was tender and full of flavour. Bashar kept checking in with me throughout the evening to ensure we had everything we needed. He also brought in a Arabic musician to make the celebration more memorable. I couldn’t have asked for more, everything was above and beyond my expectations and I felt that it was one of the best events we’ve had ever. Thank you Bashar, and your team for an...

Fantastic restaurant with an amazing atmosphere, authentic Mediterranean dishes, and wonderful staff. The service never disappoints and I’ve brought many friends to enjoy the place.

Incredibly nice owner and very generous, sometimes even offering guest seating while events are being held and free food. Thank you Ishtar for all the good memories and for the ones to come as well.

Update: I had to come back and update review after having tried even more of the menu, fantastic is the word that consistently comes from my mouth when my food arrives. When I plan my financial budget for the month, Ishtar gets a separate fund as I know I will be enjoying the restaurant at least once a week.

A well put together menu with great variety that I can’t wait to further explore.

Top quality, that in my opinion is reasonably priced for what you get. A premium product is worth a premium price.

Once again, thank you Ishtar for the amazing memories I’ve...

It was good food and sheesha, but definitely ripped us off and wouldn't listen to any explanation.

Was with a large party of 10+, each ordered their own things. Me and a friend each ordered the sheesha and that's it. We had been given some pita bread as well about 3-4 slices of pita each and hummus.

After it all we got charged $120: $60 for the sheesha and $25 EACH for a few pita pieces... we told him this must be wrong and he just yelled the price and that's it. He even didn't give my friend any change after we paid.

$25 for a few pita pieces is insane. Especially since we didn't order it. We only ordered a sheesha and ended up with $120 bill.

Go to cloud nine where you actually get what you pay for. Unless I was refunded and given an apology I would not ever do business there again , and reccomend others to stay away since they seem to want to overcharge people, and that is just...